The Long and Winding Road
by K-ller
Summary: The tale of a young girl that becomes a full fledged woman and her adventures, mishaps, growing pains, and creepy stalkers throughout her life. Friendships are made, evil is defeated, and blaming one forsaken for anything that goes wrong.
1. Chapter 1

Its been a Long and Weary Journey

World of Warcraft

((Small note, if you have a question about the armor that I am referring to, please ask. This is based from vanilla Warcraft to Cataclysm))

Where this story begins is with a lost little girl who can only care for others. This is not to say she won't defend herself, but she will never be the first to strike another. Unless it's a rabbit, rat, or other small critter. She can't really kill much else.

Waves smothered the chirping of birds as a cry of anguish shot through the air. A calm troll looked up from the fishing lure he had in the water muttering a few curses to himself. Taking the fishing pole and bucket, he leisurely walked back to the village where his wife was most likely in rage again.

Upon entering the village, many of the other trolls stood outside of their huts watching the blue skinned troll stroll leisurely to his hut and enraged wife. This rage was either caused by the lack of fish he was bringing home this week, or their daughter disappeared. Again.

Setting a two-toed foot inside of the hut, the blue-violet skinned red haired mother cried out to him "Where is our daughter?!"

Placing bucket of fish and pole to the side, the blue troll opened his arms as his wife leaned into him weeping. He patted her back reassuring her. "It's okay my love, I can find her, I can always find her."

"Akama, thank you…" releasing her husband, the worries vanished from her orange eyes as the deep-set frown took over again, "Well Akama? What are you waiting for? Go get her!"

Being ushered back out, Akama waved at his wife and whistled for his other partner to come, a large turtle named Speedy. "I will see you by dinner Selina, ya?"

"Ya, now go get our daughter! We're having head cheese tonight!"

"Really? Wonderful!" Blowing a kiss to Selina, Akama ran off to a beaten down path.

He knew his daughter loved to wander off to look at different things, and her curiosity always got the best of her. He could easily track her though. After having escaped her crib when she was three months old, they had learned a special system to track her with. Painting her feet. Although this only worked for the first couple of steps, he could find the way she went, and after that his hunting skills could take over.

Their home was with the Raventusk Trolls, even if his family was Darkspear. They had gone to the Raventusk in hopes of escaping from tyranny of the orcs. When his little girl was born, she was made fun of because her tusks were smaller than the orc children's. Although this wasn't bad, when she was only two she had wandered off into Orgrimmar, a good mile away from their old village, and almost fell off a bridge.

Running up the mountain pass, Akama could see the dragging of a stick being played with. The set of two-toed tracks skipping left by his young daughter merrily going on her way. Fear grew as he ran into the woods, before this point she might have been able to trip and scrape a knee, but now she could get killed! Wolves prowled the land, warring Troll tribes, or what he feared most, the Alliance. The speed he was going would not do.

Placing his hands to his mouth he whistled once again, calling fourth a large riding raptor. He leapt onto the raptor and set off, watching his little girl's tracks. He didn't expect her to have gotten this far into the wilderness! Panic began to sink into his empty stomach as the fear for his only child set in.

Skipping merrily along a path with her staff (a very nice stick!) a little troll hummed to herself. Where was she going? She didn't know. There were adventure's to be had! Treasure to obtain! Friends to make! There were! Oh look, what a pretty butterfly!

Picking up her staff, the little troll trailed after the butterfly.

"Fly, fly, pretty butterfly!" Her small tune wafted through the air as she passed numerous creatures that would have wished her harm. Luckily, she was unseen.

For the most part.

Little did this soft blue skinned troll know that someone was watching her frolicking through the woods. The dark figure prowled upon four legs watching closely.

Unbeknownst to the little troll, she was soon to be some creature's delicious, snack.

Akama watched as the trail led him past a small encampment of the cruel trolls he once would have called family. They glowered at him as he returned a stiff hairy-eyeball that caused them to flinch back.

Behind a large tree the creature awaited the young troll. She was still skipping merrily when the butterfly finally became out of reach and she watched it fly into the sky.

Preparing itself to pounce, the creature crouched. Waiting for the perfect moment to strike. The girl turned her back to the creature, and it seized the chance. Leaping out from its cover, a flash of blue pounced on the girl. Falling to the cold dirt a sound erupted from the attacker.

"Rawr! I'm a wolf!" another small troll crouched on four legs and raised her head in a loud howl.

The young girl rolled over pushing the other troll off of her, tears starting to swell up in her orange eyes. She saw her broken staff. The 'wolf' troll didn't know why this other troll was crying. Trolls never cried! Frowning deeply, the second troll moved closer to the first hugging her tightly.

"Why are you crying?" she questioned.

Sniffling the small tusked one gasped between syllables, "Be-cause you broke my staff!" Then began crying once again.

"Aww come on. I wasn't trying to be mean. I'm Nintu!" Three fingers fumbling around her small shirt, Nintu withdrew a small cloth and patted the others face, drying her tears. "There! All better!" Having dried the tears away, Nintu stuck two fingers into the young trolls mouth forcing her to smile.

"Stop that!" the first giggled, "Mom and daddy call me Totsie, so I guess that's my name."

Nintu stood patting off dirt from her legs and tattered shirt, placing the small cloth in her shorts this time. Staring at Totsie, a huff escaped Nintu. "You don't look like any troll that I've seen around here."

"Well what am I supposed to look like?" shrugged Totsie.

Grabbing Totsie's hand, Nintu exclaimed excitedly, "I'll show you! You can meet my mom and dad now!" Turning towards a trail, Nintu started running, dragging a confused Totsie with her. Running together the two started laughing and giggling, jumping over logs that had fallen in the road, and crawling under tree's.

Seeing his daughters trail once again turn, Akama slowed his raptor and jumped off looking at the ground. The broken stick his daughter had been dragging, a small tussel, and then four two-toed feet running in a different direction.

Another fear arose inside of him. Trolls were known to be cannibals, and why eat one of your own people when you could steal another? To use a child to lure another child was something that he wouldn't put past the troll tribe in this area. A deep rage started to swell inside of him. Jumping back onto his raptor, he kicked deeply into the raptor and pulled out a favorite snack. His carrot on a stick.

Totsie was beginning to grow tired when Nintu gasped with glee and stopped waving at the road ahead. Two trolls were walking down the road towards them. One carried a large staff with carvings deep-set into it, wooden and leather armor adorned his body. Pieces of his armor were covered in leaves, but the most striking point of his armor was the helm with large horns adorning it. The other troll had armor that looked slightly more frightening. Four red globes were her eyes, and her armor glowed a subtle violet.

"Momma! Dad!" Nintu turned to Totsie smiling and started to drag her forward.

The female troll removed her helm and placed it at her side, waving at the two. "Hello little Nintu! Oh? Who is this you have with you?"

"This is Totsie!" Nintu exclaimed reaching her mother and being swept off of her feet and risen into the air.

Totsie stood before the two and lowered her eyes, "N-nice to meet you," she stammered.

The male crouched reaching his hand forward, "I'm Corqe, it's a pleasure to meet you Totsie."

Reaching out her hand she shook the man's firm grip. The kind smile he gave to her made her look up and smile.

"Now there's a good greeting," the female said lifting Nintu onto her shoulders. "I'm Lania. We are on our way to the... what was it?"

"Raventusk," offered Corqe

"Ah yes, the Raventusk village. Do you know where that is?"

"That's where I live!" Totsie exclaimed with enthusiasm.

"Then you can show us the way!" Corqe exclaimed with just as much enthusiasm. He quieted down leaning down and close to Totsie, "Do you want to ride on my tiger..? He is very nice and you seem very tired."

Totsie tilted her head in question, "Tiger? What tiger?"

Corqe moved to the side revealing a very large orange riding tiger. Its green head jewel sparkled in the light, the large fangs seemed to not bother Totsie at all who had already run up to it and given it a very large hug around its neck. Corqe easily lifted Totsie onto the tiger, and they began to walk again as Corqe and Lania shared their stories with Totsie.

Further down the path, Akama narrowed his eyes as he saw two figures walking towards him. He also saw the tiger of the Night Elves. Alliance? Out here? As he drew closer, he saw that two troll children had been taken prisoner by a Night elf hunter and druid. This would be an extremely tough fight for him, but it was to save troll children. This couldn't be any harder than his fight with Kel'Thuzud. Reaching behind him, he drew his bow up with an arrow readily notched.

Standing on his raptor, rage filled him as he saw that his daughter was one of the prisoners. The arrow was released as Speedy kept to his name, and ran at the suspects.

Corqe pushed Liana to the side and drew his hands together forcing roots to sprout out of the ground stopping Speedy in his tracks.

Nintu had jumped off of her mother's shoulders as she herself drew a bow and notched an arrow. A wolf sprang forth attacking speedy attacking the other fiercely. Liana began to run forward as another arrow was notched. Corqe began forward as well, but he suddenly turned into a large bear rushing forth. Filled with rage, he charged forth knocking Akama off of his raptor. Liana laid down a trap backing slowly and attacking the raptor, suddenly the raptor was encased in ice.

Liana sprinted forward to find her husband also trapped in ice, and jumped backwards as several shots were fired at her. Running forward, she fired several arrows in return, but suddenly became engulfed in flames. Shielding her face from the flames, she tried to run out of them but felt a heavy weight against her shoulder. It was the attacker with two large swords digging deeply into her armor. What Akama did not expect was to be suddenly attacked by a lion and was thrown off of Liana.

Totsie and Nintu were still on the tiger watching the fight.

"Why's your daddy and mommy attacking my daddy?"

"I don't know." Nintu shrugged without much care.

"Hi daddy!!" Totsie waved at her father as he was blocking the sharp teeth of Corqe as a cat and another two handed sword with his own.

The three trolls paused looking at one another, and slowly picked themselves off of the ground.

Akama offered his hand in helping Liana up, "I'm.. terribly sorry for this. I thought you were alliance because.."

"Being one of the few troll druids, and the only with a tiger gives good cause for alarm friend." Corqe patted Akama on the back as the pets were called off one another, and they strolled back to the two girls on the tiger.

"To make it up to you two, I'd like to invite you over for dinner," Akama said apologetically hugging both Corqe and Liana.

"I'm not so-" Corqe was interrupted as the hilt of Liana's sword 'bumped' into his stomach.

"We'd love to. We're also moving here to Vulturetusk-"

"Raventusk."

"Raventusk village. Do you know where we will be staying for the night?"

Akama smiled and nodded, "Aye, that I do. You'll be spending the night with us as we prepare your new home. Hope you don't mind headcheese for dinner."

As the adults laughed at the simple joke, Totsie and Nintu stared at each other making the same disgusted look with their noses scrunched and tongues out. They hated headcheese.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Gaining Class

Together the trolls trained for eight long years. They grew older as their skills grew as well. Becoming more adept in their use of first aide, their skills in the crafts of their choice, and their skill in using magic grew. Totsie became adept in using magic while Nintu excelled at using weapons single handed weapons. As dueling partners, Nintu easily overcame Totsie who tended to just run away. Both had grown into fit young trolls. Fully grown, they knew their time as students was beginning to fade quickly, although both had different feelings about what was soon to come. What was to be their class?

Students from all around Azeroth gathered at the front gates of Orgrimmar. Their capitol city- the pride of the horde- the home of their leader Thrall. Students young and old, small and tall, weak and strong gathered looking for their names on a special board. The board was nothing more than a kodo skin tethered around two large tusks that had been placed firmly into the ground. Small charcoal scribbling covered the kodo skin. Names of the students who had been chosen to be accepted into their ranks as warriors of the horde.

Several elders stood by watching as students pushed through throngs of students, bodies mingling and the perspiration of their skin in the hot Durotar sun. Two troll females waited at the back sitting down under a rock formation watched the throngs of students trying to see their names.

Handing a fresh red apple to her best friend, Totsie unwrapped some cheese she and Nintu had brought along. They knew this would happen, and decided they might as well enjoy the afternoon rather than try to push and shove their way through.

Taking a large bite into her apple, Nintu pointed to one of the blood elves at the back of the group trying to push his way through the crowd, "Looks like he won't be much of anything, I don't think he passed any of his tests."

"He probably did better than I did though; I think I failed all of my tests."

"How could you fail? You're a frickin genius."

Totsie looked at Nintu and simply said, "At using bandages and making people feel better about themselves because I am so horrible at everything."

Biting her tongue, Nintu looked forward again, "Well, even if you can't hurt people, you're still amazing at what you do."

Nintu crunching into her delicious apple, and Totsie snacking away at some of the cheese they waited patiently.

As the sun slowly fell to the horizon, the once large and throbbing crowd of students dissipated into only a few souls that were still desperately searching for their name. Totsie and Nintu stood, patting themselves down from all of the dust and sand that had began to accumulate on their blue bodies. Sauntering over to the board, they held one another's hand for reassurance. Approaching the board, they looked down the lists of classes.

First down the list of Druids. Taurens had been the only ones listed; Nintu's father was still the only troll druid to ever exist in the Horde ranks. Hunter's followed; many names were under the hunter class. Both trolls were very happy that neither had been listed under the hunter title, they didn't want to be like their parents. Both were adept at magic, but neither were listed under the mage class either. They knew they wouldn't be paladins, blood elves were the only ones able to train in that art. The next list was priests. Although priests were regarded as the greatest healers for the horde, they were rarely thanked for all they did. Their eyes slowly read down the short list. Only three names were listed. Phather, a male troll they had met a year ago on their adventure through Orgrimmar. Secillia, a male blood elf who cared much too much for his/her hair (They couldn't really tell if Secillia was a male or a female, although he sounded male, and looked male, he acted like a female- more so than the regular blood elf male.). Then Totsie's name was listed last. Only three out of hundreds and hundreds of horde.

"A priest? You have a... really small class," Nintu commented, squeezing her best friends hand in her own.

The pause in Totsie's voice confirmed her distress for her class, "Priest? I don't want to be a priest though… but... what about you Nintu? Where's your name?"

The list continued to rogue's, which was also very long. The next list had the shamans, and in the middle Nintu's name stood out clearly. The smile that Nintu had grew tremendously, her excitement grew exponentially. She began to jump happily with Totsie joining her happiness, their excited cheers joining one another.

"I get to be a wolf! I get to be a wolf!"

Totsie cheered with her friend, very excited and happy for her. How could she be sad at her own misfortune, when her friend was going to be one of the greatest weapons of the horde, the Shaman. Able to use totems and able to harness the power of nature. They were the blood of the horde forces, Thrall's own class.

Soon after the excitement had lowered, two orcs approached the two trolls. They seemed to be bickering at one another over something. The female had bright violet armor and many golden pieces laden throughout her armor looking very much like a dragon, the male had large spikes from his shoulder pieces, and two horns protruding out from his forehead. His armor had green, black, red, and different shades of gray.

They were easily recognized for the hunter and warlock they were. They approached Totsie and Nintu finally stopping before the more tall trolls. Staring at the taller trolls, both orcs scoffed.

"Can we... help you?" queried Totsie.

"I am Gruknak. This is my little sister Gruunhilda-"

"I am not your 'little' sister you fool. I am taller than you are!" Gruunhilda retorted.

Gruknak jabbed his sharp elbow into her stomach, "As I was saying. We were told to retrieve you."

"Retrieve us for what?" Nintu questioned.

"To begin your training, of course. Did you think we were going to make you our War chief or something?" Gruunhilda retorted. Her patience for these two trolls was thinning.

The trolls looked at one another and shrugged in unison, what was there to lose? They nodded to the two orcs, and agreed to follow them. Neither were reluctant. The trolls followed the orcs to the familiar zeppelin. From Orgrimmar to the Undercity. But why were they to go to the Undercity? Their home was at the Raventusk village.

When they walked off of the zeppelin, the trolls noticed that other students were wandering around outside of the city. Gruunhilda leapt off of the zeppelin, "For the horde!" she called out. Her call was met with a large chorus of hundreds repeating her call. After landing, she waited for the trolls and her brother. Gruunhilda and Gruknak led the two trolls into the gates of Undercity.

The ruins still amazed Totsie and Nintu, they knew the city had once belonged to the Humans, but to see such a desolate place and to discover the true city was still surprising.

"So, could you tell us what we're doing here?" Nintu inquired as they waited for an elevator.

"War chief Thrall decided to change how people learned their arts. Instead of learning with others, they will have a group they will learn to work with, as well as learning with their own class. Is there a problem with that?" The doors opened and the four stepped into the elevator, taking it down to the Undercity.

"No, no problem at all!" Nintu put her hands up showing her palms in complacency.

The door slid open and the four walked out. Following the orcs, the two trolls looked at one another both fearing the two orcs slightly. When passing over a bridge, Gruknak pushed his sister into the green ooze below. When she reached the stairs there was a certain look in her violet eyes that made both Nintu and Totsie worry.

The orcs hugged one another laughing, and then continued on their way still laughing. When they reached the war corridor, they told the two trolls in unison, "Your group is just ahead. They should be a fun lot from the sound of it."

Turning the corner, they saw several different groups full of different races. Many blood elves, and undead were common. Tauren were scattered about. There were few trolls and few orcs in the groups. Their orc escorts led them to one group further in the back.

"Here is your group. Have fun, we're going to go and torture some night elves." Gruknak gave his twin a squeeze around her shoulders, they both roared in glee, and scampered off with their weapons drawn hooting a war cry.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

group one

Two trolls, two undead, and a tauren stared at one another. Each were examining the other in turn, watching for anything they didn't like. The undead rogue played with a dagger in his hand, flipping it several times into the air. His cheeks were rotted out, and dirty hair grasped his head as the glow of undead eyes stared at the other. There was also an undead warlock, with a severe under bite that leaned against a wall watching the others carefully, his mistrust showed in his posture. The tauren had a ring in his nose; his black fur seemed as dark as the abyss of the sky. His eyes warily watched the undead, mistrust seemed to fill him.

Each stared at one another for several long minutes.

The undead rogue jumped off of the boxes he had sat upon and looked at the others, "Well, since no one else will start this shin dig, I suppose I will. I am Kazzelock, your friendly neighborhood backstabber, lock picker, and booting to the face."

"Great… I like keeping dagger's out of my back," Nintu commented folding her arms across her chest, "I'm Nintu, I have the ever loved totems. If you want, I can use the forces of nature and rock some faces."

The tauren held his stomach laughing, "Ha! I got that. I'm Query, since none of you guys are all that tough looks like I'll be getting punched in the face a lot. From what the elders tell me, I will become a magnificent druid."

"Chicken you mean," Kazzelock flapped his arms and strutted around like a chicken.

"Very funny," Query smiled laughing.

"I am Plaguous, I kill things…" the imp next to him started complaining, "Oh, and summon demons." With a sigh, he kicked the imp to the side.

Smiling Totsie introduced herself, "I'm Totsie, and I guess I'll keep you guys alive. I suck at everything else." She shrugged knowing it was true.

Watching a small rat Kazzelock pointed to it and asked, "Can you kill that?"

Taking out a small mace, Totsie aimed at the small rat and swung with all of her might! It was indeed an epic swing, for she missed greatly as the rat attached itself to her wrist. Trying to get rid of the rat she started flailing her arm batting at the rat with her other hand. Finally landing a good slap to its body, the rat released its grip and scampered off. A small bolt of shadow followed it and soon killed the tiny creature.

Casting a small healing spell upon herself, Totsie sniffed looking at the ground, "I... am so ashamed.."

Pausing for a moment realizing what a sad person it would be to be unable to hurt a fly, they all began to laugh. Totsie wallowing in her own self pity of knowing she would be a healer and nothing else, ignored the gales of laughter around her.

Placing a friendly arm around Totsie, Nintu hugged her smiling, "It's alright Tots, no need to worry! We'll do the killing for you."

"It won't be that hard, you can just stand in the back and do your little wave-y hands thingy and we'll take care of the rest," Kazzelock commented.

Huffing Query mumbled, "Easy for you to say."

They all slowly quieted down, unsure of what to say or to do next.

To break the awkward silence, Query began to speak to the others concerning how he wanted to work with them. He'd prefer to not be beaten in the face on a daily basis, but because no one told him otherwise, and no one else was able to take such a difficult job, he knew he wouldn't be able to oppose it. Totsie told the others that she would be more than happy keeping them alive and tending their injuries- as long as they didn't do anything stupid- which she would give the yes or no to. Kazzelock and Plaguous agreed, they wouldn't mind goofing off, but it had to be within reason. Nintu agreed as well, and promised she wouldn't do too many stupid things if she could help it.

Realizing something Totsie questioned, "You know, I seem to remember being able to talk to people over long distances, do you guys know how that works?"

Hunched over, Kazzelock shrugged saying, "I've heard of that as well, no idea of how to do it."

In the back of Totsie's mind she heard a very clear Plaguous letting the others know, 'I certainly know how to.'

Surprised by the speaking inside of her mind the troll was taken aback. She looked at the undead who shrugged, then took out a small book opening it. There were clearly several names inside of the book; Kazzelock, Nintu, Query, and Totsie. He waved his hand over the book and each person heard his voice in his mind as the book binged.

"How do we get that!?" Nintu queried excitedly.

Taking out several other books, Plaguous handed one to each member of his group. Waving his hand over the book again, he spoke to each of them without having to move his mouth, "I was told to hand these out to each of you. When you were left by your escorts, they were supposed to hand them to you, as well as these small devices." Taking out four rocks each member took one in hand. They felt comfort from the stone. It was a dull white with a blue spiral in the middle of it.

"So what do we do with it?" Query questioned.

Kazzelock piped in, "Well, these nifty little buggers are called hearth stones. What you do is go to any innkeeper, and ask them to make the inn your new 'home'. When you cast the spell that the hearthstone is, you will be ported back to that inn. No questions asked. I've had many run-ins where I would have to run away from something and quickly use this before I got killed. As you can see, I didn't get away all of the time."

Giggling Totsie smiled at Kazzelock's humor. It was nice to see a forsaken who wasn't entirely mistrusting, although she never wanted her back to Kazzelock.

"The book is basically something to talk to one another with. If you log in names of people you like, you can keep track of them in here. You can speak to these people as well, and do a few other things with it. One of the nicer things I found out the other day was how to ignore someone."

"Ignore someone? Just don't listen to them," Nintu commented.

"Ah, but there is a problem with that. Even if you try to not listen to them, they can still get through. In the back of this book," Plaguous flipped through pages to the back of the book and pointed at a name, "Putting a name in the back of the book, basically takes care of that person entirely. They can't talk to you, talk around you, and you will never hear their putrid voice that claws at your ears ever again."

"So basically.." Query went to the back of his book looking at it, "Anyone we don't want to talk to, ever, or even hear the smallest squeak from, we put in the back of the book?"

"You are indeed correct sir," affirmed the undead.

"Sweet! This shall be indeed nifty."

Taking a moment to think about this, Totsie asked, "So even if we don't know the person, but know their name, we can talk to them?"

"Basically, yes."

"Interesting... well this shall be a very useful tool for us," thinking about the names she knew, she wrote them into the book then closed it.

"Now that that is over with, I think everything is taken care of for the day. From what the other forsaken told the two of us, you are dismissed." Kazzelock and Plaguous both bowed in unison, then walked off talking in incomprehensible gutter speak.

Query raised his hand into the air as smoke surrounded him and appeared a black cat running off.

Totsie looked at Nintu her eyes wide. "Well then. Guess we can go."

"Where should we go though?"

Shrugging Totsie compiled, "Anywhere is better than here. I don't want to go home yet either though."

"True dat." Locking arms together, Nintu and Totsie merrily skipped together singing their favorite song. Making their way back over several bridges, and up several staircases, they reach the elevators as they watched a very beat-up male Tauren walk past grumbling something about the undead needing to have more race-friendly doors to their city. Watching as another followed the tauren, a troll dragging several mutilated heads behind him.

Smiling gladly, they went into the elevator, and exited to their destination: Anywhere but here.


End file.
